Tactical Fitness Report with Stew Smith Podcast · Stew Smith

TFR 247 - Talking Nutrition, Spec Ops Testing/Selection Studies with Nick Barringer PhD, CSCS, RDN, CSSD

May 23, 2025·58 min·3 clips

Broad jump, pull-ups, and the 300-yard shuttle predicted Ranger physical success on the R-PAC.

1. Tactical Fitness Report with Stew Smith Podcast episode TFR 247 centers on nutrition, Spec Ops testing, and selection studies with Nick Barringer PhD, CSCS, RDN, CSSD. 2. Stew Smith hosts and Nick Barringer returns for his fifth appearance as a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, PhD, and sports dietetics specialist. 3. The episode asks what lessons from Army, Ranger, and Navy SEAL research can help tactical athletes train smarter after retirement and during selection. 4. Nick says he retired from the Army on 30 August and 31 August, then officially reset on 1 September after nearly a year in civilian work. 5. He credits the SkillBridge program and Martin Rooney, a coach who runs training for Warrior Gyms, for helping him transition into business and entrepreneurship. 6. That connection led to Lionel University, where Nick became chief academic officer while the school focused on exercise science and human performance. 7. Nick says he started posting more on Instagram because a colleague prodded him to be more active online. 8. He describes his strength as translating research for military units, saying he could explain why studies mattered to infantry commanders and connect them to lethality or survivability. 9. Nick and Stew frame his posts as a way to turn abstracts into something tactical athletes can consume without reading every technical detail. 10. They use his study breakdowns on brain health, collagen, cabbage and gut health, alcohol, music, and fitness testing as examples of that format. 11. A study Nick co-wrote with Joe Cardone and Nick O'Brien examined Ranger data from the 75th Ranger Regiment. 12. The Ranger analysis linked broad jump, pull-ups, and the 300-yard shuttle to success on the R-PAC. 13. Nick explains that lower-body explosive power, pulling strength, and anaerobic capacity were the main predictive factors. 14. He says the 300-yard shuttle matters because athletes must carry their own engine through repeated work. 15. Stew and Nick connect the Ranger findings to body composition, arguing that strong performance on those events usually implies the right ratio of muscle to fat. 16. Nick says the best tactical athletes are “supreme generalists” rather than world-class specialists in one metric. 17. The conversation shifts to Navy SEAL selection data that includes physical scores, family background, age, swimming proficiency, and biomarker work. 18. Nick says the data set is unusually rich because the SEAL community was early in treating students like athletes and collecting long-term performance information. 19. The tone is technical but conversational, with Stew pushing practical examples and Nick answering with study details and field experience. 20. Listeners who track military fitness tests, selection science, and tactical nutrition will get the most from this episode, while people wanting lightweight fitness talk may skip it.

As heard by us

Selection research meets tactical nutrition without losing the field-level details.

Nick Barringer and Stew Smith use the episode to tie nutrition to Spec Ops fitness tests and the selection data that matter only when they can be put to work. The talk stays grounded.

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Why you'd press play

You want a tactical fitness conversation that stays rooted in selection, nutrition, and performance testing.

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